Science is my life in the real world and I have been a sucker for TV shows based around the subject since Tomorrows World lied to me as a child (I’m still waiting for a hover car and its 2014). Usually Biology and Natural history are my main area of fascination and I consume everything Sir David Attenborough creates like a locust. One of the main reasons I find Attenborough so amazing is he is a scientist first and presenter second the same is true of Richard Dawkins. Now though we are beginning to see a new breed of scientist/presenter coming to our screens the two most notable for me are Brian Cox and the presenter of Cosmos Neil deGrasse Tyson. |
Now on with the show Electric Boy;
There are some scientists whose names roll off of the tongue; Albert Einstein is perhaps one of the top names on the list. Einstein though was not born into his knowledge and even he had people he admired and chief among these is the topic of this episode Michael Faraday. As with most things in science one discovery is built on another and we begin our journey with yet another genius Sir Isaac Newton this however is more of an introduction to the main course. Faraday did not discover electricity instead he discovered something even bigger Electromagnetic fields and thanks to this discovery he has helped shaped the technological world we live in today. |
The link to all of the pertinent events in Faraday's life is deGrasse Tyson as he swiftly sums up the previous section before introducing the next. He is a very physical speaker and will use his hands and body language to express himself. It can be off putting to some and there are times I wish the backgrounds would be more static as there can be a little too much movement. This of course is a personal taste issue, I enjoy watching expressive speakers so this is not a huge issue for me. You can tell this show has quite a CGI budget as we get glimpses throughout the show of the presenter in his spaceship studio looking over the world. It is a spot of showmanship but fits with the grand nature of the topics within the show.